https://www.eenews.net/stories/1062872411
See the article at the link for how the current EPA head replaced advisors with those from industry who do not want stricter standards.
Sean Reilly, E&E News reporter Greenwire: April 14, 2020 at 9:48 AM
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler [a former coal lobbyist] is proposing to leave the agency's existing soot standards in place for years to come — delivering a win for industry over the conclusions of agency career staff.
Under the plan, EPA would keep the existing limits on fine particulate matter set in 2012.
Those particles, technically known as PM2.5, are associated with a variety of respiratory and cardiovascular ailments; in a study released last week, Harvard University researchers tentatively linked long-term exposure to even slightly higher levels of fine particles to sharply increased odds of death from COVID-19.
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In a draft report last year, EPA air staffers had found that the existing limits may be allowing thousands of premature deaths each year. They tentatively concluded that the evidence warranted a significant tightening of the annual average exposure threshold, currently set at 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air (E&E News PM, Sept. 5, 2019).
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